Sunday, March 9, 2014

Pictured is an Egyptian poster designed by Fawzi to promote the
114-minute 1957 Essa Karama black-and-white film Ismail Yassine at
the Wax Museum [ismail yasseen fi mathaf al-shami] starring Ismail
Yasseen based on story and screenplay by Gamal Hamdi and Essa Karama,
dialogue by Gamal Hamdi and cinematography by Bruno Salvi. Plot
summary: A police officer discovered a plan hatched by some gang
members to smuggle jewelry inside some wax figures. Two gravediggers
Ibrahim and Abdou [Ismail Yasseen and Abdel Fatah Al Kasri] became
involved in a plan bury the statues. A dancer named Kitty came to the
museum looking for her lover and pretended she was a statue for the
benefit of the gravediggers. After a long series of comedic sketches
and heinous murders among the figures in the wax museum, the officer
finally discovered to his surprise that the gang leader was a woman,
who fell off a roof to her death almost immediately after her mask was
removed.